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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
This should have been titled: "KIDS THESE DAYS: Old Man yells at cloud"
Literally 300-ish pages of Bill Bryson complaining about stuff and demeaning service workers...
I'm going to stick to his older work
Literally 300-ish pages of Bill Bryson complaining about stuff and demeaning service workers...
I'm going to stick to his older work
An entertaining book about life in Britain in a lot of small towns. Bryson travels around the country and recounts what it is like on the different modes of transportation and the scenery. He relates encounters in pubs, restaurants, hotels, and stores with the clerks and locals. He talks about the history of different areas and the differences between the British and Americans. He does all this in a rather humorous way.
Very good traveling book, and it was fun to listen to the last few discs on a road trip. Bryson is fun to listen to, although my sympathies were often with the service people he deals with rather than him. Which is probably as he intended. The narrator had good expression and kept things interesting.
adventurous
funny
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
This is very familiar territory for Bryson, but it made me laugh nonetheless. It's his usual dose of history and interesting trivia worked into a casual travel narrative. While the tone of this is very similar to his other books, at points the tone is a bit less generous than it once was- slightly more apt to be displeased or curmudgeonly in his encounters with other people.
funny
informative
medium-paced
This book was written to mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Notes from a Small Island, a book that I found quite charming and enjoyable. In the years since publication, Bryson seems to have become embittered about his adopted homeland. While he views it through an idealized nationalist lens, he can't help pausing his journeys to winge and moan about what a suburbanised vassal state Britain has become. Perhaps I have an idealized vision of Notes from a Small Island, but all I could think about is how boring and pedantic Bryson has become.
About 4 funny parts, a few fascinating and informative tidbits and the rest was too repetitive and curmudgeonly for my taste.
Bryson is older. Britain has changed, and rarely for the better. He spends most of the book skating the fine line between grouchiness and heartfelt concern for a country he clearly loves. He gets away with it, just, but this isn't the laugh-fest you might expect from Bill Bryson.
Bryson doesn't have a bad book, but this one is easily his worst. An awful lot of curmudgeonly complaining. The "Here's what I was thinking in my head" conversations pall after a while. His liberal politics are also somewhat intrusive. I still laughed out loud in places but disappointing.
Bryson at his best. Tried to read this on my Nook in bed without disturbing my wife - impossible. Every few pages the bed would shake with my suppressed laughter, provoking a weary "Go to sleep!!"